Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World

Social Trends

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    LGBT Voices: The Coming Out Experience

    Browse hundreds of quotes from LGBT adults describing how the process of telling people about their sexual orientation or gender identity was for them personally.

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    LGBT Americans in changing times: Tell us your story

    Our first survey of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community examines their attitudes, experiences and values in today’s changing times. The survey found 92% of LGBT adults saw a society that had become more accepting of them in the last decade. But about half said they still experienced discrimination. These are some of the […]

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    How Pew Research conducted its national LGBT community survey

    Why did Pew Research decide to conduct an LGBT-specific survey? We know from our surveys of the general public that there’s been a sharp increase in support for same-sex marriage and in societal acceptance of homosexuality over the past decade. Of course, we’re on the cusp of an important historical and cultural moment with the […]

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    A Survey of LGBT Americans

    An overwhelming share of America’s lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender adults (92%) say society has become more accepting of them in the past decade and an equal number expect it to grow even more accepting in the decade ahead. They attribute the changes to a variety of factors, from people knowing and interacting with someone […]

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    Americans less accepting of homosexuality than other westerners – religion may be one reason

    In recent years, same-sex marriage has been legalized in some parts of the United States and in 15 countries worldwide, in part because of the public’s changing views about the subject and because of increasing acceptance of homosexuality. But these shifts aren’t universal. When the Pew Research Center surveyed the publics in 39 countries this […]

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    5 facts about fathers

    For newer Pew Research Center findings on fathers, click here. The Census Bureau estimates that last year there were about 189,000 stay-at-home dads, defined as married fathers with children younger than 15 who stayed out of the labor force for at least one year primarily to care for the family while their wife works outside the […]

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    Polling flashback: Remembering RFK

    It was 45 years ago this week that Senator Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated by Sirhan Sirhan while celebrating after a victory in the California Democratic primary. It was another milestone event in 1968, following Martin Luther King, Jr.’s murder two months earlier. Although there is no way to tell how the election would have […]

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    Breadwinner Moms

    A record 40% of all households with children under the age of 18 include mothers who are either the sole or primary source of income for the family, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of data from the U.S. Census Bureau. The share was just 11% in 1960.

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    On Memorial Day, public pride in veterans, but at a distance

    As the nation prepares to celebrate Memorial Day, most Americans have feelings of pride in the soldiers who fought in America’s post-9/11 conflicts. But the public that will be observing the holiday is also one increasingly disconnected from the military.